Armory of the Masses
by DaLintyMan
Summary: The SI is dropped into the ME-verse, by unknown means. Will he survive to accomplish his goals?
1. Chapter 1

Armory of the Masses

Chapter One: Unfortunate Events

It's strange, really, just how fast a life can be screwed up, and through no fault of that individual, either. My name is John Carnegie, and not related to anyone famous. A Halo fanatic and an avid learner, I could safely be called an average person. A little richer than most, though, as one of my hobbies is to build props for different people in my neighborhood; who could afford it. My current favorite was when a friend asked me to convert a scrapped Bug into a Warthog. Took three months, but looked awesome at college.

Anyways, my tale begins during a prolonged browsing period, looking for a job a.k.a. something cool to replicate. Pictures streamed by. How about a Needler? Nope, I already made one. How about that-

A crash from the front door announced the arrival of my best friend with his couple hundred figurines that we had built over the years. Today we were somewhat planning on making a few dozen more, but I really wasn't in the mood. Those things were _small._ As I was turning from the screen, a small ad caught my eye: Virtual Worlds. The address was… three miles away. Now _that_ seemed like something worthy of attention, and I proceeded to bound down the stairs separating my room from the front door. Kyle stretched his arms, making a show of how heavy the case had been. I slapped him backside the head.

"C'mon. Let's go out tonight. A new place opened in town, looks rather cool." He looked rather suspicious of the idea, but let me drag him out the door in my wake. The drive was rather quiet, at least by our standards. Kyle had hooked up his iPod to the radio in my truck, and was blasting out music while we were both singing along. Coming into town, I caught sight of two men in grey coats. They seemed to be carrying groceries back to an apartment next to a warehouse. Coming into the parking lot of a large imposing building, I put the truck in park. Kyle hopped out the broken window on the passenger side (so what if my truck is broken? I have better things to spend money on) and we walked up to the front door. In a bit of a miracle, the door was unlocked, so we entered. There was nobody present, lending to an air of spookiness that pervaded the area. We passed several rooms full of chairs and machinery, and a large open area. Feeling rather winded, I whined "Can we sit? I still haven't got over that board you threw at me." That was a long story, but suffice it to say that being hit by an eight foot long two by four bruises thing. We took a seat in the creepy chairs that were covered in wires. I must have hit something looking through the chair, as it uncoiled like a snake, wrapping various patches across my head and body. I could see Kyle in a similar predicament across the aisle/walkway. A sudden burning sensation, along with a solid hit caused me to black out.

Waking up is usually fun. Now imagine it when it is accompanied by the most intense pins and needles sensation you can imagine. Add that to temporary paralysis, mind block, serious stink and someone shooting nea- Wait…What? You can't shoot inside city limits, so how…? Now feeling much better, almost like I could walk, I sat up.

And was kicked in the face for my trouble. I heard a small crunch as an overly large boot impacted my face. Even as I flopped back down, the unknown attacker gave a grunt of surprise as he fell past me. I gained a little pleasure as he hit something hard. Then a few more shots flew by, luckily going past me. During one year in high school, there was a Marine who had been discharged and was looking for a job. Imagine the surprise when he had been hired as a PE teacher. While the previous teacher had been hard, this man acted like we were on duty boots. At the time, I had hated the guy, at least during the running sessions, but now his exercises might save my life. Army crawling over to a wall, still holding my face from where that idiot had run into it, I peered around it. I just as quickly withdrew, eyes wide and breathing hard. I looked again, beginning to make sense of the situation. Three men in futuristic armor and holding equally futuristic weapons were frantically firing at an oversized lizard wielding a machine gun and a couple more humanoids following in its wake, bunching together as if for protection. The three humans had a logo of an electrified sword in front of an arch on their left arms. While I was watching, one of the humans grabbed something that suspiciously looked like a grenade and lobbed it at one of the smaller aliens. Apparently, it wasn't that bright, as it caught it and tried to give it a bite. I withdrew my head again as the patented BOOM went off out in the street, leaving a smear of red where the stupid critter had been, and his comrades had decorated the walls. A smashing sound, followed by a grunt, notified me that one of the humans had been hit. Although, what was the crash _before_ the grunt? I crawled out of cover, freezing when the two soldiers did a small "tactical retreat" to an alley on the far side of the road from me. Moving to the… now obviously dead guy (and it was gross, by the way) I snagged the rifle he had been holding, as well as two grenades. As I found the trigger, another blasted creepy alien jumped at me. What the heck, spray and pray, right?

As it turned out, the thing got the barrel to its gut, and I pulled the trigger, blasting a rather large hole in the unprotected… thing. To make sure it had met its maker, I popped a round into its forehead, and staggered to my feet. Luckily, my nose hadn't actually broken. It just felt like it. One of the soldiers waved me over, and I limped to them, the giant lizard having left.

If this was a game, I was thought it was both really cool and really excessive. It felt like life on the frontlines.


	2. Chapter 2

The two men introduced themselves as Marines in the Systems Alliance. They were stationed here, which was a colony named Eden Prime by the way, waiting for some ships to take them off world. The dead guy's name was Kenen Alenko, and the two survivors were Judd and Grant. A guy at their base named O'Bannon was the sergeant for the squad.

After the shootout, the two men hauled the body of their friend into a six wheeled vehicle, which had a shovel nose and a freaking CANNON on top. When I tried to give back the gear I had taken off the man, the two Marines refused. "Nah, we don't need it, and I'm sure you will. This isn't exactly a friendly neighborhood." Grant replied, pushing back the said equipment. I pulled all of it back, still shocked at what had happened. When the two soldiers jumped in the vehicle, I waved them good bye. Watching them drive off, I had a freak out moment. Why, you might ask?

BECAUSE I HAD JUST FRAKKING SHOT AND KILLED SOMETHING! WITH THE EQUIPMENT TAKEN OFF THE DEAD BODY OF A SOLDIER!

Wow, I am stressed. Anyways, there are a lot of roads in this town. I walked past several stores, blue women, and a dozen random people. Trying to distract myself, I finagle with the omni-tool. Okay, what do we have… Money, a good place to start. Three thousand nine hundred credits, nice. I finally stopped playing with it when I ran into a sign. Eventually, I come to a hotel. I squinted up at the sign above it. Called Night, huh, that was a simple name. Walking into the lobby, I got in line, paid for my room, and headed upstairs.

As I lay in my bed, my thoughts kept turning to what I should do, as I haven't decided what I _can_ do, since this universe is completely different than Home. Dang, that is sad; I'm saying 'home' with a capital. Well, I am good at… My mind seized upon that idea. Was it simple? Fairly. Expensive? Not as much as it could be. Swinging my legs off the bed, I fired up the tool. My fingers seemed to blur as my favorite outline appeared on the hologram.

The next day, I was hunting for property. Specifically, I was looking for an empty warehouse near a large open space for offloading materials and loading product. Yes, as you might have guessed, I was going into business. I was ambling down the street, minding my business and trying to not be noticed when I looked back at a store I had passed. As I was turning, the corner of my eye saw movement, but it was just the tail end of a blur. Shifting my rifle, which I had placed on a spiffy sling, if I do say so myself, I made my way to the alley. Just before I entered, I remembered: I was wearing Alliance Marine armor. Right as I made that connection, I was shot, or really, shot at, as my barriers were perfectly capable of taking a pistol round. I can't quite remember what happened for the next few minutes, but I do remember ending up sticking the muzzle of my pistol, an M-3 Predator, sideways into the woman's mouth while holding her against the wall. She was actually rather panicked, and I glanced back at her partner, only to wince and look back. Apparently, he had caught three or four of my pistol rounds in the gut, and he was bleeding out. I held up my left hand, which had a faint sheen of red on it. "Give me one reason not to pull the trigger." I growled through clenched teeth. Her eyes widened, and started to try to mumble past my weapon. High on adrenaline and pain from a stab wound in my leg, I really meant it. When her hand went to her belt, I slugged her as hard as I could, causing her head to _thunk _against the wall, and then to slide to the ground when I released her.

After I riffled through the woman's belongings, pocketing whatever I found useful, such as her omni-tool, her knife, the knife that was in my leg, the M-3 she had, her friends tool, a data storage device of some kind, and finally I called the Marines who I had found a yesterday.

"Hello Kenen, how are you doing today?" I paused in confusion, feeling the jagged stripe of pain in my leg pulse.

"Sorry, this isn't Kenen; I merely acquired his gear when I helped Judd and Grant yesterday. Um, I have a prisoner and am injured, so can you swing a patrol this way? And for the sake of polite conversation, to who am I speaking?" I could hear a siren start in the distance, as well as my jagged breathing. Shock was fading, letting my mind finally realize what I had been through.

"This is the James Base VI, Kindle. A local police unit who has picked up another Marine is on its way." I was kind of touched really. Of course, I wasn't entirely lucid. The pain in my leg was getting worse, and I could feel my hands twitching. A small plink sounded from my prisoner, so I leaned over and whacked her on the head with my Avenger. "Hey! We are waiting for friends, so behave yourself and don't be rude." Yes, I definitely wasn't lucid. A shadow fell over me a few seconds later, with the siren coming closer in the background. I looked up, seeing a humanoid figure. "Howdy folk! I'm sorry, but I seem to have lost my legs, so I'll just stay down here if that's alright. Incidentally, did you know that my rifle is pointed at your groin? You'll have to forgive my caution, but I think it's understandable, given the circumstances." The figure chuckled, and the world started blurring.

"Oh, it's perfectly fine, mate." A dark blob with flashy lights appeared at the end of the alley. Several smaller blobs exited the flashy blob. One was a different color than the rest, and then I went to sleep, content in my little world.

"Gerrout o' mah fess, mahn. 'm tryin tah slep." I rolled over trying to ignore the person shining a light in my eyes. Hands grabbed me and held me still, but my head was still fuddled from last night. Well, I guess that's what you get for staying up until four in the morning on a weekday. Now, contrary to public opinion, and the people around me, being slapped is not a good way to wake up.

So why were they laughing?


	3. Chapter 3

Well, I got dumped off on some planet, with barely a thanks. Luckily, I managed to keep my armor and guns, so I was good to go. Except for my money situation, that could be better, I think. I stop by the side of a building and boot up my omni tool. The stupid thing is still hard to use, but I still manage to bring up my account. Two thousand credits. Jerkoffs must have taken some of my creds. Oh well, I can still-

My musings are cut off by the sound of a gunshot. Feeling pretty good about my armor and rifle, I ran over to the alley entrance, where I pulled up and hit cover, ending up with my back against the building. Half a second afterward, two pistol rounds tore through the corner of the building I was hiding behind, and one hit me square behind the shoulders, knocking my torso forwards an inch.

Crap, I knew I had forgotten something!

I cursed, and booted up my shields. Another two shots lance through my cover, both missing completely, although I thought I heard splinters patter off the left side of my helmet. I roll over into the middle of the open, and put a burst of automatic fire into the rightmost target. Small blue ripples appear in front of my target, before a large hole appeared in the creature's chest. Out of his back came a matching amount of blood. The face of the alien seemed to be surprised, with all four of its eyes widening as it fell. Its friend made some kind of noise, then pointed the pistol nearly directly at my face, and fired. I ducked, expecting to have at least a portion of my face to become, um, Missing in Action. Or shot off, to be blunt, which was why I was surprised that my face was still attached to my skull. I then noticed the blue bar in the bottom right of my vision, as I rolled over to be behind a crate. Duh, I thought as the bar refilled the small portion it had lost, of course the armor would have shields.

I flinched as a much more powerful blast rang out, and painted the wall opposite me with blood. A few seconds later, the remnants of the alien's torso rolled off a crate and landed with a squelch on the ground. I stood, shaking a bit, as I listened to footsteps coming down the alley. I blinked when I saw who had fired the shotgun, if that was what it was and looked like.

A kid. A stinking thirteen year old, give or take a few years. He had something like a cigar in his mouth, and was hefting a weapon that looked like it out massed my rifle by a slim margin. He looked at me, obviously contrasting his dirty clothes with my armor.

"Thanks for the save." He suddenly said, looking up at me with disturbing maturity. "Those batarians had got the drop on me and were about to shoot." As I didn't know quite what to say to that, I shrugged.

"So, wanna go get a drink?" I cast a slightly creeped glance at the kid. He caught the glance. "Just kidding. Apparently this planet is 'civilized' or some joke. Still, the enforcers don't come out here on the edge." We walk out onto the small road I had come down in the first place. The boy continued, "I haven't seen you around before. You a new arrival?"

I nod sheepishly. "Yeah, some jerks dropped me off, after treating me after I fought two scum bags. Eh, must have been my charming personality." The two of us walk past a store, and the three people lounging there nod.

"You know." The boy said thoughtfully. "I could help you."

"Oh. Really? How so?"

"Employment. You're handy with that rifle. Where you from?"

"Actually, I don't... know. First thing I remember is waking up next to a firefight." The boy suddenly stopped, and I had to backpedal to get back to him. He turned and smiled, in an unsettlingly smug way. Then four rifles deployed from the nearby building.

"Excellent. You can start tomorrow." And he left me standing there in the street, confused.


End file.
